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Far Cry 5 preview – Children rejoice, there may yet be hope

We experienced a bit of what Hope County has to offer in this Far Cry 5 preview, and we're actually eager to experience some more.

The Far Cry franchise has a history of eccentric and charismatic antagonists and Far Cry 5 is no different. This time, you’ve got the Seed family and their leader, ‘The Father’, Joseph Seed to deal with. He’s not really the actual father of the family; there are four member in the Seed family, the eldest brother Jacob Seed, the second, Joseph Seed, the youngest brother, John Seed, and finally, the youngest member of the Seed family, their half-sister, Faith Seed. We’ll run you through a little of what we experienced in the Far Cry 5 preview.

The Seed Family are the leaders of a cult known as Project at Eden’s Gate and have taken over Hope County, a fictional location set in modern-day Montana. You take on the role of a young deputy, accompanying the local sheriff and a US Marshall to arrest Joseph Seed. However, the US Marshall has no clue how deep the Seed family’s influence runs in the region. You’re introduced to the Seed family and Joseph Seed with a fantastic intro that sets the pace for the rest of the game.

After nearly escaping death, you learn that the Seed family has blocked all communication with the outside world. So there’s no help coming. But you find help in the form of the local resistance, who’ve been fighting back against the Seed family. They have their reasons for fighting back, be it the kidnapping of the members of their family and subsequent brainwashing to join the cult, or the killing of their loved ones.

Far Cry 5 preview – Gameplay

In terms of gameplay, it’s fairly familiar. We didn’t come across any exciting new gameplay mechanic. However, there are a bunch of new features and gameplay elements. For example, you have a wingsuit which you can use to glide from place to place. The mechanics are very similar to Ubisoft’s Steep, so if you’ve played that, you’ll be right at home. Then there are other activities like fishing and hunting. We didn’t really get to explore everything the game had to offer, but we’re sure there’s more. Would be kind of a bummer if there wasn’t.

We got to test the mercenary system as well, and are happy to report that the AI isn’t completely useless. They’re actually capable of keeping up with you and can initiate stealth attacks and remain hidden when you want to do things the sneaky way. There are special allies you can have tag along with you as well. These guys have special abilities that regular mercenaries don’t have. These also include the ‘Fangs for hire’, furry friends who are quite powerful and have abilities unique to them. We didn’t get to try them all out, but we did get to recruit Cheeseburger, a bear. Cheeseburger works as a tank, drawing enemy fire while you take them out. You’ve also got two allies who can help out with air support, and you’ll need it because the enemy has choppers of its own as well.

You can unlock abilities for yourself and your allies using perks, which you unlock as you progress through the game. There’s isn’t any experience or levelling system per se, but as you complete tasks and finish achievements, you get perks to spend. We didn’t get to spend too much time with the system, but the standard stuff like adding additional weapon slots, increasing max health etc were all unlockable through perks.

We were playing using a controller, which we’re quite unfamiliar with, but we didn’t have too much trouble killing stuff. Either the game has aim-assist, or we’re better gamers than we thought we were. We’re certainly hoping it’s the latter.

Far Cry 5 preview – Graphics

Whatever we got to experience in the Far Cry 5 preview looked gorgeous. Gliding around in the wingsuit and fishing in serene streams, you might even forget you’re playing a Far Cry game. They do a good job of portraying how a place that looks so beautifully stunning on the surface can have a really ugly underside.

All in all, we had a pretty good time playing the Far Cry 5 preview, and we’re eager to get our hands on the game once it’s out, look forward to our review.

SKOAR! is India's Premier Gaming Website. SKOAR! began its journey as a bi-monthly publication in 2003 and has since kept growing. Through this journey, it has evolved from a purely print magazine to an interactive magazine and now, has made its foray into the digital space. BTW, why on earth are you reading this part? Ran out of articles to read? Weren't we entertaining enough? Maybe you're just bored, so you might as well go pester the editor or troll someone in the comments ;-)